Seeking to inspire small acts of kindness toward animals

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Part I – I Came from the Deep South

Most of all, I miss my sister. She was brindle like me with white blaze dividing her face and ears that headed upward but took a U-turn. We were one of four puppies born to a tired mother in a shrubby expanse of woodland. Our mother disappeared one day, and we ventured out, hungry, beyond the flats.

Only my sister and I survived, wandering in the woods and feeding on bugs, drinking from muddy puddles, sleeping entwined to keep warm. We were so little.

In a clearing in the woods, an old woman stood on the porch of her cabin watching us. We watched her warily, but she stooped down and extended her hand to us. We went to her and as she stroked our heads, we closed our eyes. She put us into the back of her truck and we bumped down the road, careening this way and that. She handed us over to people to ran a shelter full of barking dogs. Time passed.

One day the shelter closed; they had run out of money. They clanged open the doors of the cages, and a hundred dogs were let go. They wandered off, tentatively, confused, into the Alabama countryside to live, to die. A woman took another hundred of us to her place where they were hundreds and hundreds of dogs. We lived with minimal food, never enough water, and squalor and disease. Many of the dogs died.

One day rescue workers arrived. They talked fast and in a different, clipped accent than I’d heard before. They gathered fifty of us puppies, putting leashes around our necks and picking us up, carrying us into waiting vans. In the confusion, my sister and I were separated. As a man carried me away, talking to me in a soothing voice, I craned by neck and saw my sister among those who remained. I whimpered and struggled, trying to get out of the man’s arms and back to my sister, to no avail. I still remember the look on my sister’s face as she watched me go. Not one night passes when I do not think of her.

“Saving just one animal won’t change the world…but the world will change for that one animal.” Author unknown

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Action Ideas

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Please don't convince yourself that someone else will help a stray or that the animal will find its way home. Stop and help. If needed, call the police or local shelter for assistance.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The Humane League’s mission has been to save the lives of as many animals as possible and to reduce as much animal cruelty as they can: thehumaneleague.com/donate/
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Donate your car to HSUS, get a tax write-off, they pick it up for free, you feel good ... onecarhelpshumane
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Many rural shelters are overcrowded and have a low adoption rate. For $25 you can transport a dog to an adoption site in the Northeast:
theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/store/ars/item/53356/?adId=138518&placementId=381055&origin
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• List of cruelty-free product manufacturers: leapingbunny.org.images/globalguide.pdf
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Help reunite a dog and his soldier: bit.ly/1bcGkv3
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• To find your local shelter: theshelterpetproject.org/shelters

“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” Immanuel Kant

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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Mahatma Ghandhi

Things of Interest

All 50 States Now Have Felony Animal Cruelty Provisions.Thank you, Animal Legal Defense Fund, for your tireless efforts.
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Looking to adopt a particular breed of dog? MANY HUMANE SOCIETIES OFFER BREED-SPECIFIC REQUEST REGISTRATION. Chester County SPCA in PA does: ccspca.org/adopt-a-pet/matchmaker-list
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50% of proceeds from this book go to animal rescue: http://swamizoe.blogspot.com/p/my-book-daily-yoga-for-happy-and.html
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Games.co.za/cats offers online cat games. . . a portion
of this South African company's proceeds fund katuitdegracht.nl (Cat out of the Canal)--a charity that saves cats from drowning in waterways and canals in the Netherlands.